140 Best Tricks of the Trade
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PRESENTS 61 PAGes OF SHOP-testeD SHOrtCUts 149 BEST TRICKS OF THE TRADE • Upgrade your Workbench PLUS • 4 Secrets to Silky Smooth Finishes • 10 Best Tricks for Tight Joints FROM THE EDITOR Thank You for subscribing to Popular Woodworking Enlightenment Now Magazine! We hope you enjoy What our column on workshop hints this free 61-page PDF has in common with mousetraps and Zen. collection of our favorite shop tricks, solutions and more. he best workshop hints and tricks that make hand tools and routers far more are – in my opinion – a lot like accurate. You’ll find a lot of his tips and T Zen Buddhist koans. suggestions inside this issue. A koan is a seemingly impenetrable Some people, Blandford among them, riddle told by a Zen master to the student. seem to have a healthy side business of If the student figures out the riddle, they submitting tricks to woodworking mag- can experience sudden enlightenment, azines that offer cash and prizes. also known as Nirvana. And if you’ve been reading wood- In addition to the printed issue you’ll Some of the most famous koans are: working magazines for a few years, then be receiving 7 times per year (along “What is the sound of one hand clap- you’ve probably also noticed that the with this free collection of 149 of some ping?” Or: “What did your face look prizes offered for winning tricks seem of the best “Tricks of the Trade” we like before you were born?” to get bigger and better every year. ever published), Popular Woodworking Here at Popular Wood- Heck, when we first started pub- Magazine offers a wide variety of digital working Magazine, we strive lishing tricks in Popular Wood- downloads, online shop classes, DVD for every trick to be a moment working Magazine (the col- and CD instructional videos, back of sudden enlightenment for our umn was called “Information issues of our magazines, and books in readers. Sometimes we succeed (see Exchange” back then) there our online bookstore at: “Our Best Tricks of the Trade.” And were no prizes. People submitted WoodworkersBookShop.com sometimes we fall a bit short (see “The tricks just to see their name in print, Worst Tricks of the Trade” – thankfully I suppose. a very brief story). Now the prizes verge on the aston- I can remember the first time our ishing. The best trick in one recent issue “Tricks of the Trade” column came to of our magazine would win you a $250 my rescue. Years ago my framing square gift certificate to Lee Valley Tools. Even We also offer “Weekly Wood News” – was out of whack by more than a degree, I considered submitted a tricks under a an e-newsletter that goes out every and I was just about to chuck the sucker false name to try to win that. Wednesday, with sneak peeks at future into the woods behind my shop (though If you’re wondering why the prizes get issues, free videos, free downloads and its boomerang-like shape made me pause bigger every year, it’s because competition more. Sign up today at: to ponder the wisdom behind that act). is fierce for good tricks. Readers love them. popularwoodworking.com/ That very week I was editing our In every survey we’ve done of our readers, newsletters “Tricks of the Trade” column and the they hail “Tricks of the Trade” as the most solution was right there, staring me in popular part of our magazine. the face. That night I corrected my square Woodworkers, it appears, crave that with a nail set and a hammer, and it has small nugget of enlightenment – even remained true ever since. if it does involve a couple mousetraps, a And that wasn’t the only trick that’s household cleaning brush and some sand- come in handy. I cannot tell you how paper. The solution to that koan can be much of a debt we all owe Percy Bland- found here. PW And, finally, visit us online for articles, ford, a perennial British trickster fea- tool reviews, techniques for hand and tured in the pages of our magazine (and power tools, links to our editor blogs others). and much more: No one can match his insight into Christopher Schwarz popularwoodworking.com making the little jigs and accessories Editor BEST TRICKS OF THE TRADE C O N TE N T S 10 Tricks for Tight Joints No matter how good a woodworker you are, your joints can stand some tightening. Here are our staff’s 10 favorite ways to eliminate gaps and add strength to your joinery. The Secret to Great Table Legs Making legs that look good from all four sides is a simple matter of examining the end grain and making a couple extra cuts. We show you how. The 16 Dumbest Mistakes Good woodworking is often a battle against our own mis- steps. Here are 16 of the most common problems, and how to fix them now and prevent them in the future. Our Best Tricks of the Trade After reading hundreds of tricks we chose our 78 favorites from our last 25 years. Just Don’t Tell the Missus Woodworkers often swipe the solutions to their workshop problems from the kitchen, bedroom or bathroom of their spouse. Here is our list of the best (and oddest) of that lot. U pgrade Your Workbench Every workbenchMAG can become more TITLE versatile by following these 10 simple ON THE COVandER quick, but highly effective tricks. Cover blurb A New Angle on Compound Miters PHOTO BY AL PMakingARRISH this tricky joint on your table saw (or chop saw)C Odoesn’tN haveTE to N T S be a mathematical nightmare. Our simple chart makes XX manyFeature common Title compound miters easyFeature to figure. description text by Nick Engler by Author Name Secrets to a Silky Smooth Finish To get a professional-quality finish, you need to learn the basic tech- niques for rubbing it out. We show you how to do it with a minimum of fuss, mess and extra materials. Strategies for Locating Lumber XX Our staff’s favorite tricks for finding good wood in unlikely places. Plus a glossary of the terms you need to know for your hunt. The Worst Tricks of the Trade We dig through our archives and pick the brains of readers to find the lamest tricks – the ones that never should have seen the light of day. XX 4 POPULAR WOODWORKING Month 2004 10 TRICKS FOR Tight Joints Some of our favorite ways to get seamless, rock-solid joinery. ou’ve cut all the components for your next Because wood is – on a cellular level – similar by the Popular project and are putting everything together to a bunch of soda straws glued together, you can Ywhen you first notice it – a gap. A dark void compress it a little bit. Usually, compression is a Woodworking where there should be none. bad thing, such as when you drop a hammer on Don’t panic – it happens to us all. For whatever your work and it dents. But a bit of compression is Magazine reason, there are instances when your joints just good when dovetailing. don’t fit perfectly and you have to decide what to do: Here’s how it works: Cut the first half of your editors Do you scrap all the time, energy, money and hard joint as you usually would – I usually cut the tails work you’ve put into the project and start over, or first. Then use that first half to knife in the second do you just let there be a little gap and move on? half of the joint – in this case, the pins. Well, we have a third option. We put our heads Next, when you saw your pin lines, don’t saw together and came up with a list of the best tricks right up against the knife line you marked, as most to help you tighten your joints. These tips will help books tell you. Instead, saw slightly wide. How eliminate unsightly, embarrassing gaps and point wide? The whisker of a gnat would be a good place your joints in the right direction. to start. Here’s how I do it: After I knife in my joint lines, I run a pencil over each knife line and then Compression Makes Dovetails Tight erase the excess marks. Then I start my saw cut to Hand-cut dovetails are some of the most challeng- leave the entire knife line. ing joints to fit perfectly. Many woodworkers will Like all things pertaining to dovetails, this takes spend hundreds of dollars on router jigs or wood- practice. Cut sample joints to get a feel for it and use working classes to get an airtight fit. a magnifying glass at first to gauge your progress. If you decide to hand-cut your dovetails, there Once you cut your pins, use a knife to ease the are a few ways to make sure you get it right. inside edges of your tails, which will be inside the joint. When you join your two pieces, the too- tight pins will slightly compress the tails and the joint will be seamless. If you try to compress things too much, one of your boards will split as the two boards are knocked together. This compression works especially well with half-blind drawer joints where you are joining a secondary soft wood for the sides (such as pop- Wood compresses, lar) with a hardwood drawer front (such as oak), and you can use that because the soft wood compresses easily.